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Aaron Schwebel is hoping that Google will help him put his
marriage back on track.

The IT worker from Wollongong drove up to Sydney's Queens Park
in the eastern suburbs today and spread out seven white queen-sized
sheets on the damp grass.

On this unconventional canvas he'd written in two sets of big
black letters spelling out his and his wife Karen's initials
separated by a big red heart: "AKS ♥ KDS".

He said the sign - which means Aaron Schwebel loves Karen
Schwebel - was meant as a message to his wife of four years who
moved back to Melbourne three weeks ago after their marriage
broke down.

Like scores of people in Sydney today, Aaron was hoping to be
snapped by a aerial photographer flying over the area in a plane
hired by Google.

If the high resolution images turn out to be good enough
quality, they will be added to the internet company's popular
Google Maps application which is used by millions of people around
the world to do everything from spot their homes to find an
address.

The Sydney flyover is the first time the internet giant has
attempted such an exercise on this scale. Usually photos are taken
without people being aware that it's happening.

"I miss her incredibly," said Aaron. "I just want to send a
message out to her to let her know how I feel."

Scattered cloud cover over the park this morning could affect
the quality of the final images which Google intends to add to the
Maps site in between four to six weeks.

The Google plane was due to pass over the area at an altitude of
600m, taking images that could be up to four times more detailed
than those that are currently on the map site.

Aaron said with the fifth anniversary of his marriage coming up
on April 14, the images on the aerial photographic map would be a
"bit of a gift" to his wife.

Aaron wasn't the only one trying to get his message on to Google
Maps. From Bondi to Manly in the east and Crows Nest on the North
Shore, scores of Sydneysiders turned out to try and put themselves
on the map.

While more than a few were commercial in nature, there were also
environmental and humanitarian slogans and - like Aaron - a
smattering of one-man bands.

At Bondi Beach, Erland Howden and a team from the Nature
Conservation Council of NSW rallied over 50 troops together to
create a human sign that read "Vote Climate''.

Similarly elaborate was a a group consisting of professional
sand sculptors, Tourism Australia representatives and the owner of
the local surfing school, Let's Go Surfing.

Arriving at 4am, the sculptors built "Australia.com'' in block
letters using sand, and flanked their masterpiece with surf
boards.

Fresh from yesterday's Big Day Out, Evermore's official street
team were also out in force at Bondi, displaying the giant
poster that the band had used during their set at the music
festival.

Rachel Moore, 18, and Catherine Tu, 21, led the throng of 30-odd
Evermore devotees, and Moore said they would be meeting the band at
the Opera House afterward.

Sam Fox, 24, and Mat Rose, 25, were on a working holiday from
Britain and at the last minute decided to make their way down to
the beach with an Australian flag, drawing their initials in the
sand below it.

"I just think it would be funny to be on Bondi Beach for
eternity,'' said Rose.

Others, like Mick Slattery, 31, saw the Google flyover as a
chance to make a quick buck. He wrote the address of his website,
"slatz.net'', in the sand.

He said he had only just registered the site, and would seek to
sell it for a profit if it appeared on Google's maps.

"It's a brilliant start to get some free advertising,'' he
said.

Budding web entrepreneurs appeared to be common, as nearby two
Japanese migrants, Ken Mikuny, 34, and Shu Ikegchi, 28, hit the
sand to promote their YouTube-clone video sharing website,
"AnatanoTV.com''.

Also spotted at Bondi was a giant poster advertising the Zoo
Weekly magazine, and a band of Amnesty International Australia
members spruiking the "Bring David Hicks Home'' campaign.

Back at Queens Park Mario Facchini, a lifelong Roosters
fan, was laying out two large red, white and blue flags, an
Australian one and a sign commemorating the rugby league team's
upcoming 100th season.

Nearby, Ian Stephenson and his two children Riley and Keira, had
driven out from Camden in the hope of getting snapped by the Google
flight.

Ian works for SOS Print and Media, a commercial printing
company, and had taken up a challenge from his boss to get the
company's name onto the mapping images.

Also looking to the heavens was Adam Cogan, the chief architect
of software services company SSW and about a dozen of his
colleagues.

They were laying out a huge, 50m long installation of the
company's logo and website address that had been printed on
commercial grade vinyl.

Further east, two students from St Clare's College in Waverley
had laid out a large peace symbol using strips of gold lame
fabric.

Courtney Cusak, 13 and Amelia Reis, 12, had originally intended
to use the fabric to spell out the letters "MPH" - Make Poverty
History - in nearby Centennial Park but hit a couple of snags.

"We found we didn't have enough fabric to make the letters,"
said Amelia. "And then a ranger came along and said we needed
permission to use the park."

The girls and their parents moved the installation over to
Queens Park.

Michael Fox and his wife Jodie Fox also had a run in with
bureaucracy in the Moore Park, near Fox Studios.

Using coloured pieces of A4 paper held down with bamboo satay
sticks, the couple and a friend had formed the image of giant
eye.

A ranger had asked them to move on, but when they explained they
had been working on the installation since 5am, he did the only
decent thing: turned a blind eye.

Dressed in their wedding outfits, the couple were promoting a
spoof dating website - darwindating.com - and a hobby travel mashup
site, swiftcity.com.

Over at Wentworth Park in Ultimo, supporters of Verity Firth,
the Labor candidate for the State seat of Balmain, had
arranged stacks of the candidate's corflute posters to spell
out the words: "Verity 4 Balmain".

Ms Firth claimed the stunt as a "world' first" in political
campaigning. "People was very busy these days," she said. "You have
to find other ways to get [the message] through to them."

Meanwhile back in Centennial Park, hundreds of people were
arranging themselves into the shape of a map of Australia for
an aerial shot being taken by rival technology company
Microsoft.

Aaron Schwebel looks to the heavens for signs of the Google plane in the hope that it will capture an image of his reconciliation message.

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